Raible Designs

[Microsoft] Day 1 Begins

We arrived at the Microsoft Campus on a beachliner this morning at 7:30. They served us a nice buffet breakfast and now we're waiting for the first talk to start. They handed us a book titled "Writing Secure Code", which is a monster at 700+ pages and has a quote from Bill Gates on the bottom: "Required reading at Microsoft." I have a hard time believing that.

The worst part? No internet access - wireless or wired. I'm uploading this via Bluetooth on my phone - which is about to die. I forgot the charger at home, so hopefully I can borrow one from someone.

FYI, I e-mailed Scoble about a cord for my camera (forgot that at home too). He's going to try to hook me up with a replacement so I should be able to upload pictures later this afternoon.

This is gonna be good

So far this definitely looks like a wine and dine event. Jay Zimmerman was on my same flight from Denver, so we got to sit around the airport and wait for a ride together. I fully expected a Limo and a guy holding a "Raible" sign. No such luck - it took an hour for a car to show up and we had to call them several times.

We're staying at the Willows Lodge, which is definitely a luxury hotel. It's probably the nicest room I've stayed in outside of Vegas. King size bed, huge jacuzzi, nice stereo (playing when I entered the room). Not only that, but incidentals are covered. That's right folks, apparently we can go get a massage on Microsoft if we like. I'll be testing those waters in short order for sure. I talked with the guys at the front desk, and there's apparently 49 people staying here for this shindig.

The Lodge is out in the country, and right next door to the Red Hook Brewery and the Columbia Winery.

Update: The wine-ing has begun. I just got a knock on the door with a guy handing me a "present from Microsoft". A box full of crackers, cheese, chocolates and a bottle of wine. Let's hope there's a wine opener in here. Found it.

Update 2: Damn, after looking at the agenda, it doesn't look like there's any time for a massage. The worst part so far? The shuttle leaves for the M$ Campus tomorrow at 6:45 a.m.!

Sun, Hockey, Snow and Skiing

This weekend was another great example of why it rocks to live in Denver. On Saturday, Holly (Julie's sister) hosted a house-warming/birthday party and we enjoyed a few Coors Lights in the 70 degree weather. Saturday night, I took Abbie and a couple of friends to the DU Hockey game, and when we left it was snowing. Sidenote: Abbie has switched from calling it "Hockey" to "DU Hockey" and she's becoming very well versed in "Go DU!".

I woke up early yesterday morning, picked up a friend and after 2 hours of nasty roads and traffic, we were skiing Keystone at 10. There was 5 inches of fresh powder and the sun was out - meaning it was a beautiful day to be on the slopes. This morning it's still snowing and expected to continue for a few more days. I'm sure we'll get spring weather again soon, but not soon enough for Julie.

Discrimination by Light Rail

After a late night wrestling with AppFuse and Acegi Security, I decided to take it easy this morning and ride my bike to the Light Rail, then ride it downtown. I figured it might be a bit faster, and it'd also be nice to relax a bit more on the "commute". I arrived at the station as my train was leaving, so I quickly realized that it was probably not going to be faster, but it would probably take the same amount of time. I was still determined to be a sissy and not ride my bike to work. When the next train pulled up, the conductor got on the loud speaker and said "30th and Downing Station, No Bikes Sir." WTF?! I gave the guy a boboli¹ and grumbled to myself.

So I ended up riding to work today anyway. I took the Platte River Trail², which was a nice change of pace, but it was also closed in one spot, so I had to take a detour. Long story short: every time I try to cheat the ride to work by driving, taking the bus or light rail, it always backfires. Riding to work using the Wash Park/Cherry Creek Trail route is simply the fastest way to get here, bar none. Took me an hour to get here via Platte River. Oh well, at least it's a nice trail.

¹ Throw your hand in the air like you're flipping a pizza.
² Most of these pictures were actually on my ride, save the last one.

There's nothing like...

I got up at the crack of dawn (4:00) this morning. For the first time since the 2nd week in January, I drove to work instead of riding my bike. We have a deadline and the software needs to be ready for production tomorrow. We don't want to stay late tonight, so we figured coming in early would be a good idea. So what happens when I get here? The server that we talk to for all our data is down. Figures - should be a good 3-4 more hours until it's up again. A wasted morning for productivity.

Hmmmm, that's strange. This post's published time shows up as 4:02 a.m. - but it was really 5:02 when I posted it.

NBA All Star Jam, DU Hockey and Tubing at Copper

This weekend was another action-packed one. On Saturday, we went to the NBA All Star Jam at the Convention Center in downtown Denver. I expected some sort of practice session with the All Stars, but it was just a carnival-like event for grade-school age basketball fans and players. We went with "Uncle Justin" and had a great time riding the light rail down and playing with basketballs at the event. Saturday night, we went to the DU Hockey game and got to witness our first loss of the season. It was a bad game, but I think the Pioneers needed it to get their heads straight for the playoffs in two weeks.

Today, Abbie and I headed up to Copper to do some tubing. The drive up was great - no traffic and Abbie slept the whole way. We rode up the lift together and hopped on the tube for our first ride down. It was wicked fast, and I thought we were in over our heads for a minute. Abbie got scared and cold and that first run was our last. I put on her hat and gloves (she didn't want them before we started the run) and we marched back to the car. The drive back was traffic-less and Abbie kept me entertained with all her mountain-driving observations. I'm going to try to get back in the habit of taking pictures when we do this fun stuff. Click on any image below to see pictures from this weekend.

Late Night

I was up until 4:30 this morning working on Spring Live. There's nothing like sleeping 3 hours and then riding your bike to work. Must... find... coffee.

Flights are booked!

I just booked our flights to California's wine country to spend our 5 year anniversary in April. I'm going to the MySQL Users Conference on Monday, and Julie is joining me on Friday. From there, we'll drive down to the Fog Catcher Inn for a romantic getaway and lots of wine tasting. We can't wait! Hard to believe it's been 5 years - Abbie and Jack are good reminders of how long it's been though. Kids rock.

DU Hockey #1 in the Nation

Yeah baby! Denver unbeaten in last nine games at 8-0-1. How good is DU? We've been to every Saturday game this year, and they've yet to lose when we're there. Must be Abbie, Jack and I's lucky shirts. Must be time to buy some playoff tickets!

The worst part of all this? DU's biggest rivalry is CC (Colorado College) and they play March 3rd and 4th - same time as TheServerSide Symposium. Damn, I guess I'll be watching (and betting if I can) from Vegas.

Good Saturday

Yesterday was quite possibly the most action-packed days of my life. It all started with going out to breakfast with the family. From there we went on a Hammond Candy factory tour with the Colorado Bus Club. Abbie had a great time and couldn't stop running around in circles. Here's some pictures from the event. After that, I headed to a local connectionless coffee shop and worked on Spring Live for two hours. From there, Jack and I headed to DU Basketball game with some free tickets I got from a friend. That game ended about an hour before the DU Hockey game. After the hockey game, I went and watched a friend's Jazz band play at The Hornet. Phew! It was a great day with a lot of family time. Being a Dad has got to be the coolest thing that's ever happened to me.